App development not such a happy go-lucky place after all

Given the number of applications we check out on a daily basis, sometimes it’s easy to forget about the thousands and thousands of applications that either don’t get covered or don’t deserve coverage. No matter how you look at it, app development isn’t the happy go-lucky place that a lot of us imagine it may be. The iPhone, and more specifically, the mobile sector, isn’t some modern age Chocolate Factory. Most of the time it’s an ugly scene.

Gameloft CFO Alexandre de Rochefort summed up the pitfalls and displeasures of the app development world while speaking at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in Paris this weekend. He said, “the smartphone market is not a goldmine for developers. It’s a bit like playing the lottery.” Rochefort then went on to say that the whole scene is a bit ugly to begin with.

Early on here at Macgasm we tried our best to feature every app that ended up in our inbox, but as the site grew, so did the requests. At last count we had 40 unread review requests, and that’s just from over the weekend. By no means are we at the top of the iOS blog food-chain, so I can only imagine what some of the others blogs are seeing on a day to day basis. It must be increasingly frustrating for developers who are seeing poor sales of their applications.

Sure, there are a bunch of developers making some pretty coin on the App Store, but they’re likely in the minority. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I kind of agree: developing apps in a market like this one must be increasingly ugly as people try to cash in fast.

That being said, we’re going to recommit ourselves to featuring more independent applications on the site. If you’ve got an app that you honestly think is fantastic, drop us an email and we’ll do our best to get you guys featured. Screenshots, YouTube videos, and download information greatly increases your likelihood of getting a featured post.